When comparing Flow vs Log, the Slant community recommends Log for most people. In the question“What are the best beehive designs for sustainable beekeeping?” Log is ranked 2nd while Flow is ranked 16th. The most important reason people chose Log is:
Honey bees evolved over millions of years living in hollows in trees; by hollowing out a log you're creating an environment very similar to their natural habitat and thus most likely to fit with the bees' needs (i.e. including any we may not yet be aware of).
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Pros
Pro Easy honey extraction
By simply turning a tap honey will flow out of your hive.
Pro Quite natural
Honey bees evolved over millions of years living in hollows in trees; by hollowing out a log you're creating an environment very similar to their natural habitat and thus most likely to fit with the bees' needs (i.e. including any we may not yet be aware of).
Cons
Con Expensive
Because of the complexity of the hive it cannot be self-built by most people, and can only bought from a single manufacturer; thus allowing them to charge a premium for this product.
Con Plastic Comb
This means you can only get liquid honey; not honeycomb. Also, it is also believed by many that the natural wax is superior to plastic for a number of reasons:
- Plastic causes "off-gassing"; i.e. the release of airborne particulates / chemicals, dubbed volatile organic compounds, which may be harmful to the health of the hive.
- The cell size is fixed. Cell size relates to the sex of the bees produces, so this restricts the bees ability to alter their drone:worker populations.
- Bees communicate by vibration; natural (wax) comb will vibrate as expected, whilst plastic will not.
- Wax can store pheromone information which may be important (though as yet there is no science to support or discount this claim).
Con No honey extraction
If you're keeping bees for honey, rather than simply to keep bees / aid their regeneration, this hive is not for you; the hive is designed solely for bees to live in; so no facility is given to allow honey to be simply extracted.